In the human body, cholesterol is produced by our liver. It is a fatty and waxy substance which is required to protect nerves, construct cell tissues and make certain hormones. Cholesterol is very important to our health, although excess amount of cholesterol level brings negative impact to our overall system. If you go to check your cholesterol level, it is estimated in milligram per deciliter of blood (mg/dL). While determining whether you are at high risk with your cholesterol level, the doctor may take into account other factors such as family history, age, sex, high blood pressure, and smoking habits. During the diagnosis, a complete lipoprotein profile will reveal the details regarding total blood cholesterol level, HDL (good) cholesterol level, LDL (bad) cholesterol level, and triglyceride level.

Total Blood Cholesterol Level

If your HDL, LDL and triglyceride level are within the desirable limit and you have your total blood cholesterol level less than 200mg/dL, this means you are at low risk for developing coronary heart diseases. If you are diagnosed between 200-239mg/dL for your total cholesterol level, you are at borderline-high risk condition. At this time, doctors will thoroughly examine the LDL, HDL and triglyceride level and ratio. It may happen that your LDL can be balanced by the HDL count. If you have your total cholesterol level of 240mg/dL or more, you are at higher risk for developing coronary heart disease twice more likely than people having cholesterol at their desirable level.

HDL (good) Cholesterol Level

HDL is good and higher level of HDL is better for health. Men having HDL less than 40mg/dL and women 50mg/dL are at risk for developing heart disease. HDL level more than 60mg/dL offers safeguard against developing cardiac complications. On average, men and women have HDL of 40-50mg/dL and 50-60mg/dL respectively. Smoking and obesity may result in low level of HDL. In order to increase and maintain a perfect HDL level, one should strictly avoid tobacco smoking, must maintain healthy diet and practice exercise on regular basis. If someone has higher triglyceride level, he typically has a lower level of HDL and consequently is at higher risk for heart attack and stroke.

LDL (bad) Cholesterol Level

If you have a lower LDL level, that means you have at lower risk for developing heart problems. Typically less than 100mg/dL implies an optimal level of LDL while 190mg/dL may pose a serious threat on health. While determining appropriate treatment plan for someone having higher level of LDL, doctors first take into account the other risk factors as well. It greatly varies person to person. If a healthy level of LDL is applicable to you; that does not mean it will be suitable in a same way for your neighbor. So it is highly recommended adhere the treatment plan as suggested by your doctor so that it can work for you in the best suitable fashion.

Triglyceride Level

Triglyceride is a kind of fat that is produced within our system. Typically people with higher triglyceride level have a higher level of total cholesterol in addition to high LDL and low HDL. Normally, your triglyceride level should fall below 150mg/dL. If you are having your triglyceride level higher than 500mg/dL, you are certainly at risk. The risk factors identified for developing higher triglyceride level are obesity, physical inactivity, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption and high carbohydrate diet. Additionally, genetic disorders may pose a threat.

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Most people have heard about how much cholesterol they have, and been rather worried when they hear that they might be having high cholesterol levels, and the reasons for these fears are sound and worth taking seriously, because if you have high cholesterol, you would be at greater risk of suffering from heart attacks, heart diseases as well as from strokes. It thus behooves you to maintain proper cholesterol levels, so that you are less at risk with regard to your overall health.

Measured In Milligrams

Cholesterol can be measured in milligrams, and there are several factors on which the cholesterol levels can be based upon such as your race, gender, health, age as well as family history and even on the fact that you are a smoker or have high blood pressure, or are obese or overweight and even when you are diabetic, and the type of exercises that you perform.

You need to worry about two different types of cholesterol that are LDL (low density lipoprotein) or bad cholesterol, and HDL (high density lipoprotein) or good cholesterol, and to ascertain the different cholesterol levels, your doctor would test you so that information is obtained with regard to LDL and HDL cholesterol levels.

Some people may have cholesterol levels that are not more than two hundred milligrams, and they will not be at much risk of developing heart diseases, though when the cholesterol levels rise above two hundred milligrams, it is considered as being a borderline high case provided it does not exceed two hundred and thirty-nine milligrams.

A level above two hundred and forty milligrams is considered as high cholesterol and at these levels you would be twice more at risk of contracting heart diseases as compared to the lower cholesterol levels. Other determinants with regard to risk factors for your medical health include the level of HDL in your body, and low HDL levels are nothing to be concerned about, while high HDL levels are a reason for concern.

Normal cholesterol levels are dependent on a number of factors including genes, culture and even age and of course, the level should be below two hundred milligrams to not have anything to worry about. As far as LDL cholesterol levels go, the normal range is below one hundred and thirty, while if it rises to above one hundred and sixty, it is considered as being high. In the case of HDL cholesterol levels, normal is about thirty-five while optimum level is anything over sixty milligrams.

There is both good and bad cholesterol which means that it is important to be able to distinguish between each type and knows how it affects a person’s health and knows the ways and means to lower it in case such is required. The different types of cholesterol are LDL and HDL and the former is a bad type because when there is excess of it in a person’s blood it will build up in the inner walls of his or her arteries which can end up causing the blocking of the arteries and thus causes atherosclerosis that is not a desirable condition.



HDL In High Quantities Will Prevent Heart Attacks

However, the good form of cholesterol is HDL, which when present in high quantities will actually aid in preventing heart attacks, though when the level of HDL is low, it can put the person at risk of experiencing a heart attack. There is another aspect to cholesterol and that is triglyceride, which is a type of fat that is obtained from the food that you eat and which is also produced in the body, and when there is a high level of triglycerides, you are at risk of having high total cholesterol in which you can get high LDL as well as low HDL, which is bad for your health.

In order to test your cholesterol level, you may need to take a test that is aimed at measuring your lipoproteins which are sorted according to their density. In case of high density, the ratio of proteins compared to fat will be high and high density lipoproteins or HDL is the good cholesterol which does the work required to help unblock your arteries and which also helps in getting rid of unwanted fat from the body.

On the other hand, low density lipoproteins or LDL which along with very low density lipoproteins or VLDL and triglycerides make up the bad cholesterol, which in high numbers will cause your arteries to be clogged and results in a heart attack as well as other diseases related to the heart. Of course, bad as well as good cholesterol will vary from one person to another and the main factors that affect how much of it you may have are being overweight, diets with plenty of saturated fats as well as cholesterol and absence of sufficient exercises as well as hereditary conditions. Also, cholesterol will also go up as a person becomes older and to control the level of it in your body it is advised to eat healthy foods and take plenty of exercises.